In order to provide telephone services to subscribers from a Service Provider Network (SPN), the incoming telephone line from the SPN is connected to the customer's premises, specifically, the line is typically connected to a terminal or interface box at the customer's premises. That box is then wired into the customer's premises. The incoming service line for the SPN contains a number of individual copper phone lines that need to be electrically coupled to an equal number of terminals inside the terminal or interface box. In order to provide for this coupling, the terminal box includes a wire tail extending from the box. The wire tail includes a bundle of wire leads that are hardwired to the plurality of terminals inside the box.
In order to couple the incoming SPN telephone line and the terminal box, the individual copper phones lines are physically spliced to the bundle of wire leads within the wire tail. This requires stripping each copper phone line and each wire lead, and making one splice per mated pair. In addition, since the connection between the SPN and the customer is located on the exterior of a building, the splices must be protected from the weather and elevated above the ground. This requires a separate splicing cover to provide an enclosure for the splices. A mounting bracket must also be supplied to mount the splicing cover on the wall. Therefore, delivery of phone service to the customer requires various equipment and a significant amount of installation time, increasing the cost of each installation and limiting the number of installations that any one technician can accomplish on a given day.
A system for delivering phone service to a customer is desired that decreases the amount of equipment required and shortens the installation time. Suitable systems would still be usable for use in exterior locations and would work with existing telephone supply lines and customer premises.